By the Rev. J. E. Jackson. 



143 



windows of the chancel contain much stained glass : and among 

 other heraldry, a quaint allusion to the name of Oliver St. John ; 

 an olive tree, from the boughs of which hang the different shields 

 of all the heiresses just named. There is also a painting on wooden 



I panel, as large as life, of Sir John St. John and his wife, Lucy 

 Hungerford, of Farley Gastle. On the panels is a pedigree of the 

 St. Johns, drawn up by Sir Richard St. George, Garter King at 

 Arms, whose wife was a St. John, sister of the Knight who is 

 painted there. Horace Walpole, in his " Anecdotes of Painting," 

 mentions that upon one occasion, when the furniture of Lydiard 



; house was sold by auction, an old servant of the family during the 

 night hid a bust of Lord Bolingbroke, by Rysbrach, in a vault in 

 the church, from which, in due season, it was restored to light. 

 One of the daughters of Sir John St. John (just mentioned) was 

 wife of Sir Allen A.psley Governor of the Tower, by whom she was 

 the mother of Mrs. Mary Hutchinson the wife and biographer of 

 Col. John Hutchinson, governor of Nottingham Castle. In the 

 church is an inscription to another daughter of Sir John St. John, 

 Katharine, Lady Mompesson. Her husband was Sir Giles Mom- 

 pesson, of an old Wiltshire family, of Gorton and Bathampton 

 WyLy, near Deptford Inn. Sir Giles was M.P. for Great Bedwyn, 

 about 1620. He was also a great projector, dealer, and patentee. 

 In no reign was the system of patents, granted by the Crown, more 

 abused than in that of King James I., chiefly through the fault of, 

 and to fill the purse of, the favourite Duke of Buckingham. Sir 

 Giles Mompesson and another person of the name of Mitchell 

 obtained the privilege of the exclusive manufacture of gold and 

 silver thread, with which the dresses in those days were liberally 

 embellished. This privilege they abused so outrageously, that an 

 example was obliged to be made, and Sir Giles was severely 

 punished. He was the original of the Sir Giles Overreach of 

 Massinger the dramatist (himself a Wiltshire-man). 



The most remarkable name in the family of St. John is that of 

 Henry, the first Lord Bolingbroke, the celebrated statesman. He 

 was neither born nor buried here : but Lydiard was his family 

 inheritance. In 1712 he was created Baron St. John of Lydiard, 



